Machinists drive Boeing to production records

District 751 Machinists at Boeing built and delivered record numbers of 737s and 777s in 2009, helping the Company’s Commercial Airplanes group deliver its greatest-ever revenues.

The Boeing Co. would have turned a profit of roughly $3.8 billion in 2009, executives said, if it hadn’t been for delays and cost over-runs on the 787 and 747-8 programs – delays caused largely by Boeing’s unwise reliance on an outsourced global supply chain.

“There was a lot of talk last year about how Boeing couldn’t be successful in Puget Sound, and how our Members were somehow to blame for that,” Wroblewski said. “But one look at the financial statements shows what the truth is – our Members generate revenues and drive profits.”

Those planes have an average list price of around $69 million apiece – although with discounts, customers typically pay closer to $46 million. Even at the discounted price, the efforts of District 751 Members in Renton resulted in almost $17.3 billion in revenues.

Meanwhile, the 777s delivered from Everett have an average list price of around $249 million – or roughly $174 million after discounts. That makes the value of the 88 planes built and delivered by Machinists there something close to $15.3 billion.

Based on the timing of most airplane contracts, Boeing would have received about 60 percent of the payment for those planes when they were delivered last year – perhaps about $20 billion, in round figures.